Background
Aleksei Sergeyevich Suvorin wad born on September 11, 1834, in Korshevo, Voronezh oblast, Russian Federation.
1881
Portrait by Ivan Kramskoy
Suvorin Theatre, now Bolshoi Drama Theatre
novelist playwright publicist publisher bibliophile
Aleksei Sergeyevich Suvorin wad born on September 11, 1834, in Korshevo, Voronezh oblast, Russian Federation.
Aleksei Sergeyevich was born of a peasant family, he succeeded in gaining access to a military school at Voronezh from which he graduated in 1850. In the following year, he arrived in Saint Petersburg and joined a major artillery school there. With limited prospects of pursuing a military career, he spent eight years teaching history and geography, first in Bobrov and then in Voronezh.
A major step forward in his career was in 1861, when, electrified by the Emancipation Manifesto, Aleksei Sergeyevich relocated to Moscow. At first, money was tight, instigating Aleksei Sergeyevich to move to Saint Petersburg, where he joined the staff of the Saint Petersburg Vedomosti, an influential newspaper with liberal leanings. He soon became its leading contributor and secretary to the editor in chief.
He was very prolific and published a number of short stories and plays in the major outlets of the liberal media of which he was considered a leader. Capitalizing on that success, Aleksei Sergeyevich set up a publishing venture in 1871. Among his first publications was the Russian Calendar, which was in high demand all over Russia, followed by an unprecedented series of cheap editions of classics, both foreign and Russian. For more demanding readers, he issued a suite of richly illustrated albums about the great art galleries of Europe.
In the late 19th century, Aleksei Sergeyevich launched a series of city directories, published on an annual basis for Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and the rest of Russia that detailed the names and addresses of private residents, government offices, public services, and medium and large businesses.
By the end of the century, Suvorin's bookstores were everywhere, in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kharkov, Odessa, Rostov, Saratov. Aleksei Sergeyevich held a monopoly on the distribution of printed matter on the railway stations and trains, and he was probably the most influential publisher in the country. In 1876, Aleksei Sergeyevich acquired ownership of the failing newspaper Novoye Vremya (New Times); he remained the editor in chief until his death. In 1880, he founded a reputable historical journal, Istorichesky Vestnik.
Ever since the 1860s, Aleksei Sergeyevich had been interested in theatre and regularly published theatrical criticism. He befriended Anton Chekhov when the latter was an aspiring journalist and became one of his few intimates. By the second half of the 1890s, when Chekhov finally distanced himself from Anton Chekhov, the latter had plunged headlong into a theatre. With secure financial backing, Aleksei Sergeyevich launched his own stage company in 1895. His powerful connections allowed him to get the censorship lifted on Leo Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness, which was premiered at his theatre. Before long, Suvorin's predilection for controversial pieces made his theatre unpopular with liberal elites. Despite the negative publicity, the company survived its founder and continued to operate profitably until the October Revolution, under the name Maly Imperial Theatre.
Aleksei Sergeyevich set out as a liberal journalist but, like many of his contemporaries, he experienced a dramatic shift in views, gradually drifting towards nationalism.